If you have been reading this blog at all you will probably know that I have fallen head over heals in love with Warlord Games World War 2 wargame Bolt Action. I have posted many pictures of my United States Marine Corp force which continues to grow at an alarming rate.

I started Bolt Action off as an avid German Army player with a true love of the Tiger Tank as anyone that listens to Home Guard Radio will tell you. I decided to return to the German force with a Battle of the Bulge inspired list. This army is going to be made up of the new grenadier models from Warlord Games, they are how ever not out yet so I needed a project.

This brings you to my current plan while I wait patiently for the release of these I decided to start work on my new gaming board. What am I building, we’ll let me tell you I’m building Stalingrad…….. Obviously not all of it but a 6ft x 4ft version of it.

The table is going to be made up of 2 x 2 tiles of ruined apartments and a small train yard, I have almost all the materials collected and construction is due to begin in the next few weeks. I will be posting all about the build stage by stage during the construction and I will have a 4 x 4 section ready for the Scottish wargames show Claymore in early May, so I invite you to follow along as the madness and sliced thumbs begins:

Level 7 [Omega Protocol] picks up after the events of Level 7 [Escape] where the captive of Subterra Bravo managed to escape the underground holding facility past the various captives and the defenses of the base. [Omega Protocol] continues the story and the base has been overrun by the monstrous creations of the base. The government knows that if the truth of the base were to leak to the people it would be catastrophic. The shadowy agency in charge has dispatched special forces kill teams to retake the base and defeat the alien threat and keep the secret.

Now I love aliens, games, stories and the weird feeling that each night they might be outside the window…. Or maybe that’s just me. Years ago I played a lot of XCOM and even the recent release of that and XCOM Declassified my interest in the whole government alien conspiracy started again. The best description I can think of for Omega Protocol is that of a turn based shooter if we were talking about video games, at a squad based level. The game is designed for between 2 and 6 players and comes with 37 stunning Plastic Figures, which the war gamer inside me is demanding I paint.

The game itself is based upon a grid layout playing surface which adds to the feeling that you are stalking down the dark corridors in the facility stalking your alien prey. You have the ability to equip your troopers with various types of equipment and special kit to aid them in the fight. The modular style of the game tiles means a huge amount of flexibility in terms of the layout if the playing surface. Players can choose from five different classes of troopers including rifleman, recon and heavy assault, the team is made up of a combination of these troopers working together to complete there mission. Speaking of missions the book itself is twenty seven pages long and packed full of missions and background for the set up of the game.

While the other players are playing as the Special Forces one of the group is playing as the evil alien overlord, this overlord player controls the whole facility and all that is going on inside. While the Special Forces troopers are heavily armed professionals armed to the teeth with the latest weapons they are heavily outnumbered and fighting in a world out with there control. The squad has to work its way down tight corridors where the enemy can be hiding round every corner and in all the air vents. The alien threat is all around the team and the random events can destroy the best made plans. How long will you survive in the alien controlled facility?

Level 7 [OMEGA PROTOCOL]

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Yesterday I decided that I was going to pop down to the new 6s2hit shop and try and get a game of Bolt Action as there are normally a few of the guys kicking around there. When I go there no one was about so I decided to knock out some pictures of the terrain and the great gaming tables that the shop has. Plus I get to show off my armies at the same time.

The game that followed was a lot of fun and I completely forgot to take any pictures of the game. 1000 points USMC vs Soviets, interesting soviet list from Tim with the mandatory flame tank and a couple of vet smg units. First off I would like to congratulate Sky Wizard (Air Observer) for not attacking my own models, because he died to the prep bombardment. The Hellcat and the T34 went toe to toe for 3 turns at 2” distance with us both fluffing dice rolls, The Hellcat eventually won out and was then wrecked by the At Rifle team. One point I tried again was Vet on Vet at a range of 5 inches. Do I shoot or charge, I tend to charge as if I shoot I have to roll to hit and then to wound where as a charge is only a wound roll, the risk is however that I lose a squad.

Overall I like the feel of having a tank in my army again and I think it will need to stay there…

It has been a while since I posted anything and there are a number of reasons for this, the first being the opening of the new 6s2hit bricks and mortar store here in Edinburgh. Secondly I have been moving house so everything I own is in boxes and getting to my panting stuff has been difficult.

The USMC are still continuing to grown at an alarming rate, I have decided that Im going to try and get the units I have fully painted before the next phase of the force expansion begins. Over the last few games my opponents seem to be bringing more armour to the table and my cute little 37mm Light Anti Tank Gun can no longer really deal with the T34 or Panthers that have begun to emerge. Having already bought a number of armoured vehicles for Tank Wars, it was a simple choice in that one of my Tanks would take the anti armour spot.

The M18 Hellcat, a favourite of mine in World of Tanks and an absolutely stunning model from Warlord Games. The kit was lovely to put together and was loaded with outstanding details and a choice of barrels. With the addition of some stowage from the tremendous Tamiya 1/48 Brick Walls and Sandbag set.

Along with some personal weapons for the crew and a few other bits of personal kit added to the stowage racks and to the upper surface of the turret. I then added some bandage to the barrel of the gun to represent the camouflage lagging that was occasionally wrapped round the barrels.

Since I had ordered the excellent Company B ( http://www.companyb.biz/ ) USMC decal set with the tiny pin up girl decals which I have added to the side of the turret.

That guy from Home Guard Radio the excellent painter Ali suggested I pick up one of the weathering kits. I gave it a little go on the Hellcat and it seems to be pretty good although I may not have used enough on this first occasion.

As promised part 3 of the creation of my US Marine Corp force for Bolt Action , the force is now sitting at a healthy 1000 points and strangely enough for me its finished. The squad that I posted last time was sitting painted for a few weeks and then I realised that the D.W.A.R.F tournament was in 7 days so I had to get the finger out and get painting. Well I managed it in only 4 days with time off to sleep and work, I am very proud of myself since as you may have noticed a lot of things get finished. So here we have the Force as it stands now, all that is left to paint is a mortar team and the flamethrower. Oh and a couple of tanks that I may have bought……

Time for the an honourable mention and this goes out to ‘Sky Wizard’ my Vought F4U Corsair that represents my air strike, a the tournament he bombed my own troops four times out of six, well done sir well done .

It has been about a month since I started my games with the 750 point United States Marine list and its been interesting my first six games with them resulted in 4 draws and 2 wins. One of the wins was against the infamous Bonnar and that felt good I have been on the end of the beat stick end of his army many times. What I learned is that the close combat potential of the force is excellent but It needs to timed correctly. The two units with the shotgun and the Thompson’s can put out a tremendous amount of fire and they can survive the incoming fire as well.

As promised I have built the remainder of the 1000 point force, well the force I have planned not the one that was listed on the side of the box. I had made this decision that I was not going to expand the force larger than this level but that has fallen apart, more on that later. We have been plying games that range from between 750 and 1000 points with the tournament that the lads from Home Guard Radio are going to being 1000 points. The extra 250 points will be made up of the following units:

Veteran 37mm Light Anti Tank Gun

Veteran 30 cal weapons team x 2

Veteran Medic + Guard

Guard for the Vet Lt.

The plan is that each of these units will fulfil a specific role within the army giving the force some much lacking punch. The Anti tank gun will provide the main anti armour unit in the army, well at least the more reliable of the three units. Crazy Larry and the Bazooka team is a little to unreliable since he is only 24” range and suffers the -1 for shaped charge, this tends to mean that he is mostly hitting on 5+ due to the movement penalty that he is almost guaranteed to acquire. The benefit of the light AT gun is that it is able to moved by the gunners if needs be. Repositioning the AT guns is obviously not ideal as I sacrifice a turn of shooting to reposition but I hope that Crazy Larry can cover the repositioning of the gun if I have to reposition.

The two 30 cal teams will be deployed alongside the anti tank gun to provide a solid back line of fire support to protect the anti tank team who are going to spend most of their time at the back of the table. Between the 30 cal’s and the At gun they will able to hopefully control 50% of the board.

To add to the units already mentioned I have added a bodyguard to the Lieutenant and the Medic in the case of the medic it will give the unit some more survivability and for the LT it will allow him to charge small units with a degree of success.

Having played a total of 8 games with the 1000 points army I have found that my use of the Bar squads to support the SMG squads as they assault is working well I just need ot become more aggressive with my advancing and not hold back to much.

Now anyone who has read anything on here before or has listened to Home Guard Radio will know that I have a small obsession with tanks, this time however I was determined that I was not going to go all tank mental like I did with my Panzer Lehr force with its multiple Tiger’s and Tank Destroyers. I mentioned earlier that I had picked up one of the new Warlord plastic 75mm Sherman kits since it was looking at me from the shelf and I couldn’t resist.

I built the kit in a very traditional way and I have since decided that I need to converted the tank into something special. The Marine army came with one of the armoured half tracks and I have managed to get it base coated but im in no rush to finish it off.

The only unit that I haven’t spoken about yet is the Air Observer, I was a little sceptical at first about the reliability of this unit however with 8 games down and only one rookie pilot attack run that cost me the Lieutenant and pinned the majority of my force.

So there we have it my 1000 point army as it stands I have a vague idea of where I want the army to go, I have ordered some new shiny things to add to the force these include a M24 Chafee and an M18 Hellcat.

More to follow later as I try to paint the whole lot by September 13th…..oh my